UT Arboretum Society presents history of CRESO on March 28

Posted at 10:41 am March 19, 2019
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

John Byrd of CRESO (Submitted photo)

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will sponsor a talk by the Clinch River Environmental Studies Organization, or CRESO, on Thursday, March 28, at the UT Arboretum Auditorium.

The talk is scheduled from 7 to 8 p.m. March 28. The UT Arboretum is at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.

John Byrd, principal investigator with CRESO, and Fred Holtzclaw are retired high school biology teachers, a press release said.

“After spending 12 summers transporting junior high and high school students to remote places in the southeastern United States to visit unique ecosystems, they decided it was time to turn in their chauffeur hats and set up a research facility in their own community of Anderson County, Tennessee,” the press release said.

In 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy partnered with Anderson County and Oak Ridge Schools to develop an education/field research program known as the Clinch River Environmental Studies Organization.

Byrd will document the evolution of this 30-year program along with the upsides (and a few downsides) of student research and conservation efforts, the press release said. It will also be an opportunity for participants to become more familiar with some of the unique flora and fauna found at the Arboretum and surrounding landscapes.

“Byrd and Holtzclaw found that a key motivator behind CRESO was the heartfelt desire to introduce young people to local wildlife, which continues to be a constant source of joy, questions, and discovery on an almost daily basis for its founders,” the press release said. “They sincerely thank the many students and CRESO staff members that contributed to the fun and serendipity associated with doing science.”

This is a free program sponsored by the UT Arboretum Society, and no advance registration is required. For more information, send an email to [email protected] or call (865) 483-7277.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Most news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, contributors, and subscribers. This is a free story. Thank you to our advertisers, contributors, and subscribers. You can see what we cover here.

Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today.

If you haven't already, please consider subscribing to Oak Ridge Today. You don't have to subscribe to read most of our stories, but your subscription does provide benefits, including access to premium content. And it will help us cover local news for you day and night, as best we can. You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month. You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers:

Basic

Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and join a private story discussion page
Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and join a private story discussion page

Temporary

Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

If you prefer to send a check, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.